Millennials spend $600 billion in the U.S. alone each year—and their spending is expected to exceed $1.4 trillion in 2020. The youngest Millennials will turn 24 this year, which means it’s more important than ever to learn about their spending habits and purchasing preferences as they start to enter the workforce and have more money to spend. This way, you align your brand to meet them and capitalize on their immense buying power!
You order fulfillment process is a key component of this. So, here are three key tips for building loyalty amongst Millennial shoppers through your order fulfillment process.
Millennial shoppers were born between the years 1981–1996. At the time of the last Census, there were 83.1 million Millennials in the U.S— making them the largest living generation. So, due to their sheer size, this generation is causing many changes in the labor market and business landscape.
Here are three key ways to boost brand loyalty amongst Millennial shoppers through your order fulfillment experience:
The internet plays a massive role in the way Millennials make purchase decisions. In fact, 76% browse online before buying at all. While this gives eCommerce sellers an advantage over brick-and-mortar retailers, it also presents some challenges. With so much competition in the eCommerce space, your brand needs a way to stand out. Showcasing your unique brand and building deeper connections with your Millennial shoppers can help you accomplish this and develop a valuable competitive edge! Why?
When deciding between brands to purchase from, Millennial consumers seek emotional connections. A recent study found that 48% of Millennials are more likely to buy from a brand if they know the people behind it. The same study found Millennials were drawn to brands that fulfill a “Trust Loop.” This means brands that are humanized and focus on transparency, experience, and community rather than their products or services alone. Additionally, 45% of Millennials expect more engaging experiences with brands than with retailers. The bottom line behind these figures? Millennial shoppers expect the brands they shop from to not only have great products and services, but to take it a step further and actually build relationships with them, listen to their feedback, and engage with them.
How can you meet these expectations through your order fulfillment process? Be transparent by clearly posting your shipping policies on your website, then providing full visibility into your fulfillment process by notifying your Millennial shoppers when their order has been received, fulfilled, and sent. If an order is going to be late, don’t just hope they won’t notice—reach out to them with an explanation, what you’re doing to fix the problem, and an updated ETA. Ask for feedback by sending follow-up surveys after they’ve received their order and actually work to implement positive changes. Seeing as 67% of Millennials believe they have a responsibility to share feedback with a brand about their customer experience, it shouldn’t be too hard to get it! All of these simple things can help to build that trust and long-term loyalty amongst Millennial shoppers.
Another key way to boost engagement and build that brand loyalty with Millennial shoppers? When marketing to Millennials, it’s all about personalization. Like we just mentioned, they crave deeper connections with the brands they buy from, which means they want to feel like a valued individual—not just a number. How can you make each and every Millennial shopper feel unique when you have so many orders to fulfill?
Millennials grew up in a hyper-connected world. They’re willing to share more information about themselves online than ever before, which presents a huge opportunity for your brand. If you can capitalize on insights from consumer data, you can craft your fulfillment process to align with their needs and preferences. The Fulfillment Lab created fulfillment marketing to make this process easier than ever before!
Fulfillment marketing combines fast shipping, transparency, and customization—without sacrificing scalability. It leverages insights collected through marketing data you’re already collecting to deliver a personalized experience (even at mass volume!) that will keep your Millennial shoppers happy.
Our fulfillment team will meet with your internal marketing team to gain a deeper understanding of your business and the needs of your customers. Then, we can create unique fulfillment experiences for your various target market segments, and leverage the analytics within our Global Fulfillment Software™ to quickly pinpoint which fulfillment experience your Millennial shoppers like best. This enables you to create customized packaging to match, such as custom shipping boxes, labels, inserts, and more! The result? A more engaging customer experience that will keep Millennial shoppers satisfied and loyal to your brand long-term.
For Millennials, Amazon Prime-speed shipping is not only the norm, but the expectation. In fact, Millennials are significantly more likely to say that same-day shipping is an important factor compared to other generations—around 45% say same-day delivery is important. Additionally, 83% of Millennial say free shipping is important to them.
If you want to attract Millennial shoppers, you need to have the fulfillment logistics in place to deliver on these shipping expectations. If your fulfillment process is slow, messy, and disorganized, it will result in drawn out delivery timelines with no visibility. This will create a poor customer experience! On the other hand, a streamlined and efficient fulfillment process with end-to-end visibility will expedite your shipping speeds and satisfy Millennial shoppers.
That’s why at The Fulfillment Lab, we offer dependable, efficient shipping with global order fulfillment capabilities. We even offer expedited shipping options that guarantee delivery in 3 business days or less. We also have 14 fulfillment warehouses (2 domestic and 12 international), which means your products will always be on the fastest possible route to your customers. Utilizing multiple warehouses cuts down not only on shipping time, but also reduces the number of zones that each shipment must cross. This makes it possible to pass along lower shipping costs to your Millennial shoppers.
In an increasingly competitive, fast-paced online market, order fulfillment needs to move just as quickly as eCommerce businesses themselves—especially if you want to satisfy digitally-driven, hyper-connected Millennial shoppers. Working with the right fulfillment provider can make this happen for your brand.
The Fulfillment Lab offers the comprehensive, cutting-edge fulfillment services you need to develop a competitive advantage! Looking for an end-to-end fulfillment partner to help you capitalize on trends affecting Millennial shoppers? Contact us today!